More Polyphonic Propers: Audi filia and Assumpta est

August 15, 2012

For this year’s feast of the Assumption, here are polyphonic settings of the Gradual and Alleluia which I composed in 2009. The recording below is from my composition recital of this spring; the singers are fellow students from college.

Alleluia, Alleluia. Vs. Mary is taken up into heaven: the host of Angels rejoice. Alleluia.
Notes: The gradual begins with four voices (SATB), in 2/2; however, the texture is reduced to SAT and the meter is free and chant-like for the duration of the verse. The Bass re-enters on the final word “ejus”, since this is where the choir would come back in if the proper were chanted.

The alleluia is rather an ABA’ sort of form: the first statement of the alleluia is fugal, in 3/4 with some hemiola. In contrast, the verse is in 2/2 and very influenced by the species-counterpoint I had been learning at that time. The return of the alleluia is in the same style as the beginning; however, this recap used the inversion of the previous fugue-subject. The final chords of all the cadences in this piece are open fifths.